LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Louisville got an important piece of roster continuity Saturday when guard Adrian Wooley announced he will return for another season under Pat Kelsey, becoming the first scholarship player from last season’s team to publicly commit to coming back for 2026-27.
The 6-foot-4 guard from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, appeared in all 35 games for the Cardinals this past season, making 16 starts and averaging 8.7 points, 3.9 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 22.5 minutes per game while shooting 45% from the field and 35% from 3-point range.
Wooley’s return matters on multiple levels for Louisville. It gives Kelsey back one of the team’s most reliable perimeter players, a guard who stayed available all season and showed flashes of being capable of more when his role expanded. Over Louisville’s final eight games, Wooley averaged 11.4 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.7 assists while shooting 48.3% from the floor.
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His biggest moment came in Louisville’s March 7 win at Miami, when he scored 15 points and hit a go-ahead stepback 3-pointer with 18 seconds remaining in regulation. Earlier in the year, he turned in his best scoring game with 21 points in a Dec. 30 win at California.
Wooley transferred to Louisville from Kennesaw State ahead of last season after being rated among the top players in the 2025 portal cycle. Before the year, Kelsey praised the sophomore’s edge, saying Wooley had “a grit and a toughness and a competitiveness” that fit the program.
His announcement also gives Louisville a needed returnee amid heavy roster turnover. Multiple scholarship players from the 2025-26 roster have entered the transfer portal, while the Cardinals have already added major portal pieces in Kansas big man Flory Bidunga, Oregon guard Jackson Shelstad and Arkansas wing Karter Knox.
At the moment, Wooley’s decision gives Louisville something it badly needed: a proven player already familiar with Kelsey’s system, and one who now looks positioned for a larger role heading into Year 3.
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